Rochester gets $17.7M for Inner Loop project

The city of Rochester will get $17.7 million in federal funding to turn a section of the Inner Loop into a boulevard on the East End, officials announced Friday.

“We’ve been fighting for a long time to get the east end of the Inner Loop filled in, and I’m proud to announce that now we’ve got the federal funding to do it,” Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Perinton, said in a statement.

The grant will come from the U.S. Department of Transportation through its Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.

The project, estimated to cost $24 million, would eliminate two-thirds of one mile of the expressway between Monroe Avenue and Charlotte Street and replace it with an at-grade street with nine acres of developable land.

The city will contribute $5.9 million to the project.

“This is great news for our city as it will allow for the reconnecting of our neighborhoods, encourage walking and biking, and it will create a new corridor for business, retail and housing,” Mayor Thomas Richards said in the statement.

Preliminary engineering and design should be completed late this year or early next year, city officials say. Final design should be completed by next summer, and construction could begin as soon as next fall.